Typhoon Bopha leaves some 1,800 dead and missing in Philippines

Philippine authorities raised to 1,838 the number of dead and missing left by Typhoon Bopha, which ravaged the central and southern part of the archipelago for five days last week.

With 906 fatalities at the latest count, emergency management teams have little hope of finding alive the 932 people missing for more than a week after the typhoon devastated plantations and dozens of villages.

According to the national emergency management office, 2,660 people were injured as floods and mudslides damaged close to 250,000 homes, of which some 60,000 were totally destroyed.

Some 59,000 people are being sheltered in evacuation camps, while close close to 759,000 are in need of water and food in order to survive.

The typhoon came at an unusual time, after the monsoon season that begins in May and ends in November.

The island of Mindanao on the south end of the archipelago is near the equator, where typhoons are a rarity because the force of Earth's rotation at that point is not sufficiently strong, though they can occur when water temperatures are unusually high. EFE